Taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ (2 Cor. 10.5)

Vision
Sustainability
In our secular, materialist, and narcissistic age, human happiness and wellbeing are defined primarily in economic terms. School curricula are written to ensure that students will be able to find a job. Advertisers appeal to our material needs and wants with a duplicity and disingenuousness that we have come to accept as normal. Policy-makers bend all their efforts at improving the financial and material standing of their constituents. The electorate, in happy agreement with that basic idea, endorse and vote for those who seem to promise the greatest economic and material boon – at someone else’s expense, of course.

But the bumper sticker that asks, “Are we having fun yet?” hangs like a sword of Damocles over our factious, fuming, frustrated, and failing society.

Americans are the wealthiest, most materially-well-endowed people in the world, yet we do not appear to be a happy people. And, in our pursuit of happiness, we’re using up our resources, polluting our planet, and forfeiting the futures of our children and grandchildren.

It’s looking more and more like trying to sustain our society and environment on material grounds alone is not going to work.

Maybe it’s not all about the bottom line after all?

Social scientists are beginning to express concern that “Tracking only economic growth has been detrimental to social and environmental progress...” According to Christina Hicks, et al, the failure of economic factors alone to improve human and environmental sustainability “demonstrates the need for broader understanding and assessment of human well-being” (“Engage key social concepts for sustainability,” Science, 1 April 2016).
Golly! Who would ever have thought that?

The authors insist that governments and other agencies must enlarge their view of what it means to be a human being, and what constitutes a healthy environment. They insist that money and material possessions are not the only, or even the best gauge of human and environmental sustainability. They call on policy-makers to employ such means of assessing sustainability as human wellbeing (economic, personal, and relational), human values, agency (freedom and the ability to pursue one’s values), and inequalities. Only when such factors are taken into consideration will it be possible to create policies for long-term sustainability in all social and cultural environments.

Social scientists want policy-makers to look up from their spreadsheets and polls and pay more attention to what makes human beings human and a healthy environment healthy. Policy-makers wield power, ostensibly to help those they serve realize a full and abundant life. Questions of sustainability come down to power – what kind, who has it, and how it should be used. The authors do not want the use of power to be determined merely in economic terms. They argue that a human being is more than merely homo economicus. We are persons with values, relationships, goals, purposes, and principles, who value other human beings and understand the need to care for our environment.

But where can we find the insight, wisdom, and will to make the shift from an economic and material project to one that is more human and holistic?

The authors insist that only science can flesh out this broader picture of sustainability. As they put it, “Policies and practices to address these challenges must draw on social sciences, along with natural sciences and engineering.”

In other words, artists and poets, business and professional persons, much less theologians, pastors, and thinking Christians, need not apply.

From the perspective of the scientific and political communities, no power exists in those sectors that might make a difference in the sustainability quotient, even though the agenda the authors propose draws heavily on ideas long ago articulated by prophets and thinkers from within the Christian tradition, and will require the agreement, skills, and resources of every one of us.

It remains for those of us who inhabit those sectors to prove that we have something positive to offer in working toward more sustainable communities and a more sustainable environment.

For reflection
1.  As a Christian, thinking about society, culture, and the world we inhabit, how do you understand the idea of “sustainability”?

2.  The Christian’s power for growth is spiritual – the power of the Holy Spirit. But does this power have anything to do with culture, the environment, and the needs of our neighbors? Explain.

3.  Jesus “sustains” the entire cosmos (Heb. 1.3). What are the “sustainability” implications of His rule in your life?

Next steps: What role should local churches play in the long-term sustainability of their communities? Talk with a pastor or church leader about this question.

We depend on the Lord for the needs of The Fellowship of Ailbe. This means we come to Him daily, asking for His help in giving us wisdom to know His will, strength and skill to do it, and the resources we require for each day. As for this last, we understand that God intends to support our ministry from within the ranks of those who are served by it (Ps. 20.1-3; Rom. 15.26, 27; Gal. 6.6).

If this ministry is important to you, we ask you please prayerfully to consider becoming a supporter of The Fellowship of Ailbe. It’s easy to give to The Fellowship of Ailbe, and all gifts are, of course, tax-deductible. You can click here to donate online through credit card or PayPal, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Dr., Essex Junction, VT 05452.